03 April 2011: March Madness ~ Two New Cousins and A Slave Owner Identified!

March Madness wasn’t just going on in basketball last month. March was a very exciting month for my genealogical research. Ancestor mojo was in full force!

First, I was contacted by a new cousin who is related through my maternal line. Esther saw my tree on Ancestry and contacted me through another researcher that we have in common who is also a cousin to Esther and probably to me as well.

My maternal great, great grandparents were Albert Middlebrooks and Malinda [?] of Woodbury, Meriwether County, GA. They had a daughter Laura Middlebrooks. Albert and Malinda also had a son, Alexander “Alex” Middlebrooks who was my great grandfather. Laura and Alex were siblings. Laura Middlebrooks married Salis Stinson and they had a daughter Leola Stinson. Leola was Esther’s grandmother. So, Esther and I have the same great, great grandmother. Yes, I said great, great grandmother, not grandparents. Therein is the mystery.

Esther’s brother did very extensive research on the family. According to his research, Malinda’s maiden name was Gill. I had assumed that Malinda’s maiden name was Guise because that is the name listed on the death certificate for my great grandfather, Alex Middlebrooks. According to family lore, Malinda was part white (probably by a slave owner) and had a child or children fathered by her Gill slave owner. We don’t know which child or children, but one could have been Laura. There are notes in the research that Malinda would go up to “the house” and say things like “here, take it, it ain’t mine no way” referring to her child who was fathered by the slave owner. Fascinating stuff!!

Esther is full of family stories, and our conversations never fail to release another piece of the puzzle. I am anxious to visit her and go through those “six big binders” of information that her brother complied during his 30 years of research.

During our first conversation, I told Esther about my 2011 resolution to find a slave owner for my Middlebrooks line. So far, that has been a major brick wall. Recently, I found my great grandfather, Alex Middlebrooks, in the 1880 census for Woodbury, Meriwether County working as a laborer on the farm of R.T. Powell. His name was enumerated as “Elic Middiebrok”. I didn’t tell Esther any of this, thinking it could wait for another time.

I guess the ancestors thought differently because…….

Later that night Esther called me back and said I have something I want to read to you. She had found it in her brother’s research. Then she read this one sentence… Alex Middlebrooks was a slave on the Powell plantation. I was speechless. Of course, there is much research to come before I can confirm this statement, but for now all I can say is WOW!!

And then…..

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a lady, Debra, who is a cousin on my paternal side.

Debra stumbled upon my blog when she googled to find information on Greene County, GA in preparation for an upcoming family reunion. Debra is responsible for writing up the family history. Reading my blog, she noticed that we had the same surnames in our tree, Brewer and Lawrence, and that my ancestors, like hers, were also from Greensboro, Greene County, GA. After a few emails and a phone conversation we easily made the connection.

My grandmother was Fannie Mae Lawrence and her mother was Lessie Brewer. Lessie’s mother was Fannie Mae Brewer. Fannie Mae Brewer also had a son Whit Brewer who had a daughter Hester Brewer. Hester was Debra’s grandmother. So, Debra and I have the same great, great grandmother – Fannie Mae Brewer. We were both thrilled to make this connection and quickly arranged to meet. Debra is just starting her journey into genealogy and her enthusiasm is refreshing.

Debra was raised by her grandmother, Hester Brewer, and has breathed new life into my Greene County research, and the Brewer line in particular. A few years ago while researching through some Greene County records at the GA Archives I found court papers concerning a custody battle for a child – Hester Brewer. Along with Hester, the other parties involved were Fannie Brewer and Whit Brewer. My focus was on something else at the time, so I made copies of the papers and filed them away for another day when I could examine them more closely. Of course, I never got back to them and they remained in that file until a few weeks ago when I met with Debra. She was thrilled to receive this piece of history about her grandmother. Debra had heard bits and pieces of the story, but the court papers pulled it all together. What a great story to begin her family history!

As Debra and I have discovered, it seems the ancestors have been working their mojo in our family for years through the generations. Follow along….Debra’s grandmother, Hester Brewer, was raised in the household with my grandmother, Fannie Mae Lawrence, whose mother, Lessie Brewer, was Hester’s aunt. Debra has an Aunt Ruth –Hester’s daughter. I have an Aunt Ruth – Fannie Mae’s daughter. Debra’s Aunt Ruth was told that she is named after my Aunt Ruth. It gets better. Follow along….I have a cousin Zelphyr. Debra has a cousin Betty (who would be my cousin as well). Betty has a daughter, Zelphyr. Debra’s cousin Betty named her daughter after someone she worked with whose name was Zelphyr. Betty and this Zelphyr became really good friends, so she named her daughter after that friend. As it turns out, that friend, Zelphyr, is also MY cousin Zelphyr! They were coworkers who became good friends, and never knew they were also cousins. As it turns out….We are all COUSINS!!